Noah Dobson named best Habs defenseman ahead of Lane Hutson by Bleacher Report

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Crédit: Noah Dobson plays for the New York Islanders against the Los Angeles Kings.

Noah Dobson’s arrival with the Canadiens will change many things on defense. Kent Hughes has replaced David Savard with one of the NHL’s elite right-side defensemen, but you have to wonder if he’s already the Habs’ best defenseman. According to Bleacher Report, he is. This was revealed in a ranking of each NHL team’s best defenseman.

The author of this list, Adam Gretz, asserted in his text that Lane Hutson would have easily deserved the Habs’ best defenseman spot if it weren’t for the Noah Dobson trade. According to him, Dobson’s offensive performance took a hit last season due to circumstances with the Islanders. He may have a point, but it’s hard not to place a player who finished ninth in Norris Trophy voting as your team’s best defenseman.The only exception to the rule here is Thomas Harley, who finished seventh in Norris voting, but is overtaken by Miro Heiskanen, who was injured for much of the season.Both Hutson and Dobson are offensive defensemen. With 66 points last season, Hutson far exceeds Dobson’s 39, and Hutson is probably the best offensive defenseman between the two at the moment.

[content-ads] Another argument is that NHL Network ranked Hutson 19th on its list of the best defensemen in the NHL, while Noah Dobson didn’t make NHL Network’s top-20 defensemen list. There’s no clear winner in this debate, but that’s the beauty of it. It’ll be interesting to see two defensemen from the same team try to be the best of the bunch [spacer title=’Overtime’] – Suzuki is an excellent captain.

– He won’t have been sidelined for long.

– Ouch.